Erica gets a job at Gary-okes, a karaoke bar, which makes Murray and Beverly incredibly proud. Beverly is overly enthusiastic about this, and wants to sing a Streisand duet with Erica, but that's not something anyone with ears should want. Elsewhere, Pops gives Barry and Lainey a savings bond for their future, but they want to spend it now. And of course, Barry does, buying a bike with the money. The next day, Beverly is ready to go to the karaoke bar (with a new sweater and everything!), even though Erica explicitly told her not to come. The Frentas show up too, also in new embarrassing sweaters, and Erica yells at Bev and tells her to respect her boundaries. Bev agrees, and somehow sticks to her word. Later, Murray gives Barry and Lainey advice on finances, telling them that in a relationship, one person has to be the saver and one has to be the spender. Because he loves Lainey so much, Barry agrees to be the saver. That's funny. At Gary's insistence, Erica asks Beverly to come to karaoke with the Frentas, which makes Beverly too happy to even speak.
Murray tries to teach Barry his ways of saving, which includes into using A/C, saving water, and a bunch of other things Barry will absolutely fail at at some point soon. At first, he takes it very seriously and he basically becomes a new Murray. At karaoke, Beverly and the Frentas desperately want to sing, but Erica won't let her. Gary comes around to sign them up for music, and the Frentas accidentally get Erica in trouble. Erica thinks Beverly tattled to her boss, and she tells her to go home. This enrages Beverly, and now it's time for a Frenta karaoke experience. At home, the electric bill arrives and they've saved a whole $6, much to Barry's disappointment. Back at the bar, Beverly embarrasses Erica by singing a ton of songs, and Erica makes sure to tell her how embarrassed she is. Beverly understandably gets upset, and she storms off.
Murray tells Barry and Lainey that they aren't ready for marriage, and Pops reminds him that Murray and Bev were the same when they were young, and that he had to give Murray a job in the furniture store just to get him on his feet. Later, Erica apologizes for being mean to Beverly, and they sing a karaoke duet to Jessie's Girl at the bar. Later on, Murray tells Barry that he opened a savings account for him and tells him that he has plenty of time to become a saver like him.
Wrap-Up:
I thoroughly enjoyed this episode, and I thought it was the best episode of the season. While Barry's plot wasn't full of too many laughs, it was still entertaining and I enjoyed seeing Barry and Lainey develop into more than just two irresponsible idiots in love. Murray was probably my favorite part of the plot though, because I love seeing him have a big role in the plot. Too often, it seems like Murray is just along for the ride, and tonight he had a really big role in the episode. Pops was also great, and I loved the moment he had with Murray near the end of the episode, reminding Murray that he once was in the same position as Barry. I thought that was a sweet moment.
Beverly singing karaoke with the Frentas was by far the biggest laugh out loud moment of the episode, even though that plot was definitely reminiscent of something we've seen before. It doesn't really matter though, it was still hilarious and I loved seeing the Frentas back together again and Rick Springfield's guest appearance was really funny. It was pretty by-the-book, but what it lacked in originality and unpredictibility, it made up for in humor.
This doesn't have any effect on my score, but I did find it odd how small a role Adam played in this episode Was Sean Giambrone busy or did they just want to shake things up?
Score: 8.5/10
Grace: B+
